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OPINION APRIL 02, 2021 | The Indian Eye 18

Indian security forces have been fighting A deal between India and Pakistan can see the return
Pakistan-sponsored terrorists for decades. (ANI) of normalcy in the state (ANI)

sert sovereign claims over PoJK Kashmir and Ladakh, Home the main issue in India-Pakistan need to prevent the precipitate
during the 1990s and noughties. Minister Amit Shah averred in talks should be vacating Paki- emergence of a two-front threat,
The most significant assertion in Parliament that all his referenc- stan’s aggression from the por- and Pakistan’s imperatives re-
this regard was the resolution es to the State of Jammu and tion of Jammu and Kashmir it lating to the management of the
unanimously adopted by both Kashmir should be understood has been occupying. After Par- Afghan transition and gaining
Houses of Parliament in Febru- as including Pakistan-occupied liament passed the 1994 resolu- relief from the strictures im-
ary 1994 demanding that Paki- Kashmir. More significantly, he tion, the Sabha expressed hope posed by the Financial Action
stan vacate the portions of Jam- added that PoJK is worthy of that the Rao government would Task Force.
mu and Kashmir territory which the ultimate sacrifice. Here, it is abandon its ambivalent attitude These circumstances may
it has “occupied through ag- also worth noting the informed on the Kashmir issue. Eleven prove propitious for placing the
gression”. Parliament, however, speculation about Shah’s crit- years later, another RSS body, complicated issue of Kashmir
passed the resolution more as icism of Prime Minister Atal the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari on the back burner and foster
an expression of defiant deter- Behari Vajpayee for foreclosing Mandal, reminded the Manmo- bilateral cooperation in order to
mination in the wake of Paki- the option of regaining PoJK han Singh government of the better concentrate on meeting
stan’s diplomatic campaign and by precipitately conducting the 1994 parliamentary resolution the above challenges. Accord-
Kashmir consequently becom- 1998 nuclear tests and thus pro- and called upon it to “stand firm- ing to an informed Indian com-
ing a global talking point. viding Pakistan an opportunity ly against any international pres- mentator, placing the issue on
Since the coming to pow- to demonstrate its own nuclear sure” to compromise on the issue. the back burner was also Modi’s
er of the Modi government in weapons capability. India’s position on the con- own preferred approach when
2014, the tone of Indian asser- Shah’s statements in Parlia- tours of a settlement of the Kash- he first assumed the prime min-
tions of sovereignty over PoJK ment were followed up by De- mir issue has changed during the istership.
has become sharper and their fence Minister Rajnath Singh course of the last few years. Driv- In the long run, however, if
frequency has also increased. In and Foreign Minister S. Jais- en by the long-held convictions both India and Pakistan were to
June 2015, responding to media hankar. Speaking at an election of the BJP, the change appears competitively seek to alter the
questions about the proposed rally in Haryana in August 2019, set to endure for two reasons. territorial status quo, the result
elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, Singh stated that, if talks are The first is the pole position in would be a further aggravation
the spokesperson of the Minis- held with Pakistan, India will not the Indian political firmament of conflict.
try of External Affairs not only discuss any issue other than Pa- that the BJP appears set to enjoy
asserted Indian sovereignty but kistan-occupied Kashmir. A few for some years to come. Second, S. Kalyanaraman is Research
also dismissed the elections weeks later, addressing the press future governments are likely to Fellow at Manohar Parrikar
as a camouflage for Pakistan’s on the occasion of 100 days of find it difficult to overturn a pol- Institute for Defence Studies and
“forcible and illegal occupation the second Modi government, icy on national territory that is Analyses, New Delhi.
of the regions.” A few months Jaishankar affirmed that PoJK is laden with emotional and sacral
later, exercising its right of reply a part of India and expressed the overtones. Views expressed are of the author
during the UN General Assem- hope that the country will some- This change in Indian policy and do not necessarily reflect the
bly debate, an Indian represen- day obtain “physical jurisdiction” on a Kashmir settlement may views of the Manohar Parrikar
IDSA or of the Government of India.
tative called out Pakistan as a over the region. not have adverse consequenc-
foreign occupier of the territory Over the decades, the RSS es in the next few years because This is the abridged version of
of Jammu and Kashmir. has also repeatedly flagged the of India and Pakistan’s need to the article which appeared first
Senior cabinet ministers issue of vacating Pakistan’s oc- concentrate upon other com- in the Comment section of the
have followed Modi’s lead. Fol- cupation of Jammu and Kash- pulsions, both internal and ex- website (www.idsa.in) of Mano-
lowing the abrogation of Article mir territory. As far back as 1963, ternal. These include managing har Parrikar Institute for Defense
370 and the establishment of the the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi the adverse economic impact of Studies and Analyses, New Delhi
Union Territories of Jammu and Sabha of the RSS asserted that the COVID pandemic, India’s on March 31, 2021

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